Pau Gasol’s production has gone down noticeably over the past couple of games and he was even benched for the entire fourth quarter in the Lakers loss against the Grizzlies. It’s been blamed on D’Antoni’s fast paced offense, Gasol’s conditioning and his lack of touches. Well now there’s a new reason. Read more after the jump.

Gasol got touches in Saturday’s destruction of the Mavericks, and indeed looked to be more energetic and engaged during his 13-point, nine-rebound performance. But if there are nights when Gasol doesn’t seem to be himself moving forward, we now know the reason may be due to something other than pouting over where he receives the ball.

Gasol was very active in the first quarter. He drilled a mid-range jumper, scored down low and hit a running left-handed hook shot over Chris Kaman.

He also had a revelation after the game. He has been battling knee tendinitis for over a month.

“It’s something that has been lingering since this preseason. I’ve been dealing with it the best I can,” he said.

The good news is that Gasol hasn’t missed practice or game time with the condition, so at this point, it isn’t too much of a cause for concern. What will help is keeping his minutes down, which is obviously much easier to do if the Lakers are rolling their opponents as they did Saturday night in Dallas.